You might be keen to re-launch your business, attract a new client base or push a new offering out into the world this Autumn. And maximising the Back to School / New Year / new season energy is a fantastic idea. But, now, there’s a hitch; time is whizzing by and you’re in a muddle over what the heck to do next to make it happen.
Perhaps you were thinking that you’d do it all yourself?
Or maybe you were hoping you could find one amazing superhuman who could do All The Things for you to bring this dream to life?
What many people don’t realise, is that all the elements involved in launching a new website / digital presence / shiny new brand require different branches of storytelling magic. Yes, a great Website Designer and a smashing Copywriter will both invest heaps of time in getting to know you, your business, your ideal clients and your mission. This is what we consider to be absolutely fundamental stuff; the foundations. And we know enough of each other’s skillset to know how to write for the web or design with story flow in mind. But then we use those insights differently.
That’s why now is the time for you to invest in the right team to tell your business story. And you’re going to get a deep dive into how working in a collaborative way can boost your storytelling superpowers through this blog post, featuring insights from myself and my collaborative pal, Website Designer Sammy Phillips.
Sammy and I realised that this conversation was one you probably really needed to hear. Which is why we got together and recorded this mini podcast episode we shared on LinkedIn. You might recall this guest blog post from Sammy where we shared how we started working together in a more collaborative way earlier this year. You see, we saw an opportunity to make a HUGE difference in our clients’ experience of branding or rebranding. And then last week, we sat down with someone who wanted to work with us as a collaborative team, and heard how much simpler combining our energies makes things for you as a business owner. There’s so much thinking and getting your head around stuff whilst you’re unleashing your inner storyteller. And with the crossover that we have, our clients get a simpler, more streamlined experience; because we’re asking the same questions to inform the story strategy. So when someone works with the two of us as a team, we share insights and simplify the process.
How a storytelling team could make all the difference to you
Whilst they require different skillsets, your design and copy aren’t entirely independent things; they are a rich tapestry or a beautiful handwoven quilt that tells your story using differently shaped building blocks. It’s likely that for you, it feels like a bit of a, “chicken and egg” scenario with your website design and copy. You may be scratching your head asking, “But what comes first? Do I write the copy first and then make it fit the design? Or do I design first and kind of shoehorn the copy in?”
The answer is, that to have the most impact, you would benefit from working with a Web Designer and Copywriter in tandem as one team. That way your two cheerleading, project managing superstars can create flow and synergy; working through the layout, the user journey, the kind of information needed, and crafting those stories in a way that makes it all flow. It’s a total win-win.
What you’re struggling with that breaks our hearts
From my point of view, I was sending off clients with these lovely documents with all of their amazing copy in it, and we’d spent weeks or months, distilling their message and getting a great story down, and then they were going away, and never doing anything with it. And all of this lovely website copy, it would collect digital dust, locked away in a file somewhere. Simply because they didn’t know what to do with it, or they hadn’t budgeted for getting a designer on board, because they should be able to do this stuff themselves, right?! (thank you, constant advertising saying that anyone can build a website in days) or because they were waiting for the right person to come along to help them and didn’t know where to look. I want your story to be heard. I want you to have the thriving business you deserve. And I want your soulmate clients’ lives to be changed for the better.
From Sammy’s point of view, she had clients coming to her with reams of text, which all had great stuff in it, but she needed to work through to pick things out. Instead of focusing her creative genius on design, she found herself creating headers, rehashing copy that hadn’t been written with website design and user experience in mind. The problem with writing your own copy as a business owner is that you might have forgotten to write with your soulmate clients in mind. There’s so much power in the words and how you present the words that if you can get those two together, then you’re really going to get much better results.
And so it just seemed the perfect combination to collaborate as we have similar values, our clients have similar values, we work in a “who” and “why” focused way and we couldn’t bear you not getting the most out of your investments.
What you might have done before that didn’t work - and why
You – and your own clients – deserve a process and experience that flows. We’re talking about branding and web design and copywriting that melds and meshes and flows together, right from the get-go. Having your one true voice out in the world, representing your business helps build trust. Putting a jarring or disjointed message out into the world dims your sparkle.
When your brand is saying one thing on socials, and then your website copy is dramatically different – which often happens when you work with people in isolation or silos – you put out mixed messaging which is not a good feeling for your ideal clients. Consistency is key. You, like us, may have come out of the corporate space, and you may have come to the realisation that silos in the corporate space don’t work. Communication between humans is pretty essential. So why would we support silos in our field of doing-your-own-thing and having an incredible heart-led business? If you’ve said, “Oh, I’ll have a designer over here. And I’ll have a copywriter over there.” And then it’s felt really hard, it’s probably because you’ve had to play middle-man between them. As a business owner, that’s a lot of work, on top of your long list.
Of course, you might not have identified a need to work with experts to put your story out into the world. You might still be at the stage where you’re saying, “I should be able to do / figure all of this out myself!”
Listen, we get you. And we see the guilt, frustration and anxiety this might be bringing up for you. When you did your qualification – whether that was Nutritional Therapy or Yoga Teacher training – that’s so many hours, and quite a bit of money in investment. That’s what you were oh so excited about. Helping people with this incredible new thing you’ve dug into, and NEED to share. Yes, when you come out into the world as a business owner, you do have to get to grips with various things and wear multiple hats. But that’s obviously a bit of a sucker punch. You probably weren’t prepared for needing to know marketing, admin, finance, social media, copywriting, website design etc etc etc. Sure, in the beginning, you have to do a bit of it in order to get things off the ground and find your zone of genius. But then you need to acknowledge that there are other people to bring in, experts that can make running your business so much simpler.
And sometimes you need the headspace it requires to try and tackle all those new things that you’ve never done before. To be supported as you learn the more technical side of things, overcome the, “Am I going to break something, if I push this button?” moments. When you’re not familiar with the systems and processes involved in running an online business, it can be really stressful.
Most of us have experienced burnout in previous careers, which is why a lot of us have set up our own businesses, because we want more freedom and time. And then you can very quickly find yourself going back down that same burnout road, because you’re trying to tackle too much. It can feel pretty lonely when you’re a business of one and there’s no one to turn to to ask; you don’t have a department that is dedicated to x, y, z that you might have been used to in a different career.
When you’ve got your own little team who are in it with you, invested in your business and want to help you succeed, connect with your clients and make your journey easier, you’ll have more energy and go further in your business.
How getting support can help
Look, when you’re designing a website, your main concern is going to be not breaking it and does it look good? When a Web Designer and Copywriter work together on your website, they are very much looking at the customer journey, making sure it makes sense and that the messaging can be easily digested. People’s attention spans are generally quite short, people skim read. Part of our job is to make sure that we’re keeping people engaged on the website, that the information that they need is presented to them in the right way. Storyelling through your website means that information needs to be more broken up, with lots of headers and separators. It’s very different from reading a ream of paper or newspaper, or even a book, where people can sit for quite a long period of time, reading a fairly continuous bit of writing. In the online space it’s very, very different.
How Sammy and Lea connected - and what that means for you
We’d been in similar circles for some time, mostly courtesy of fellow business owner and Just Start Now Founder Vicky Shilling. And when we realised how similar our soulmate clients were, we decided it was high time to take action and take people on a more powerful storytelling journey, one that they felt good about and meant they had access to the right kind of support the whole way through. For us, it’s wonderful to feel part of a creative team, to see a project through to its conclusion, to share ideas, and leads to better results for our clients.
Yes, working collaboratively makes our jobs easier in lots of ways, but most importantly it makes the whole process much easier for our clients. It’s so powerful, as a business-of-one owner to have help and someone there to help guide you through those bits that you don’t know, or you’re unsure about. If you’re not very technically savvy, it doesn’t matter, we’ll lead you through that. If you don’t quite know how to get clarity around your ideal client, we’re whizzes at getting that out and manifesting that into beautiful stories.
So, if you’re a business owner looking to maximise the new beginnings energy of Autumn and want to experience the ease and flow of working with the two of us in tandem, you’d better book your project in soon, because there’s not a lot of time left to get that done. And of course, as soon as September hits, it’s then a race to the end of the year. You need to start this work now if you want to have a kick-ass January. Because not only is it helpful for you right now, in terms of having somebody help you out with those things that could take you waaaaay longer to learn on your own, but it saves you time longer term; fast-tracking you to feeling clear and confident in your business. Having that confidence to share on whatever platform, is a massive boost for your business. It’s time for you to communicate with confidence and clarity and build that human connection that we’re all craving.
